Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed the death penalty awarded to Shukur Ali and commuted death sentences given to three others to life imprisonment in a case filed for abduction, rape and murder of a 13-year-old juvenile in Kushtia in 2004.
The Appellate Division of the SC also asked the jail authorities to shift the three convicts, whose death sentences were commuted, to regular cell from the condemn cell. They are Nuruddin Sentu, Azanur Rahman and Mamun Hossain.
A five-member Bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain delivered the verdict after hearing separate appeals filed by the convicts challenging the High Court judgment that confirmed their death sentences in the case.
Convict Shukur Ali has right to seek review of the apex court verdict and presidential mercy to save his life. If his mercy appeals are rejected, the jail authorities can execute the death sentence, the court said.
The 13-year-old victim of Lalnagar village under Kushtia’s Daulatpur Upazila went to a neighbour’s house to watch television on the night of March 25, 2004.
The convicts abducted her while she was returning home. They took her to a tobacco field and raped and killed her there. The following day, her father filed a case with Daulatpur Police Station in connection with the incident.
The judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Kushtia on February 4 in 2009 sentenced five accused to death in the case. The High Court in 2014 upheld the sentence given by the tribunal.
In the meantime one of the convicted persons, Kamrul, died and remaining four convicts filed appeal with the Appellate Division challenging the High Court judgment. After hearing on the appeal petitions, the apex court on Wednesday delivered the verdict.
Lawyer SM Shahjahan appeared in the court on behalf of the appeal petitioners, while Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Debnath represented the State.
